movie review

Critics applaud this history lesson on racism in America

(Newser) -
Spike Lee wants President Trump to see his new movie, reports Reuters , and critics want you to see it, too. Based on the true 1970s story of a black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, BlacKkKlansman has a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes , with critics commenting on its...
More »

'No one cares,' writes one critic

(Newser) -
The reviews are in for Slender Man , the faceless character's jump from the Internet to the big screen thanks to Sony Pictures and director Sylvain White, and they're nearly universally awful. Four zingers summing up critics' 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes :
More »

Still, there are missteps and a slow start: critics

(Newser) -
Disney's Christopher Robin sees its adult namesake (Ewan McGregor) reunited with his childhood friend Winnie the Pooh (Jim Cummings) outside the Hundred Acre Wood and just in time, as life in post-World War II London is pretty gloomy. What critics are saying about Marc Forster's latest:

Tom Cruise has still got it as Ethan Hunt

(Newser) -
A terrorist group seeks plutonium bombs in Mission: Impossible - Fallout , the sixth film in the series for those counting. You can surely expect another: Critics have given the Christopher McQuarrie-directed film a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . Here's what they're saying:

Especially if you're an ABBA fan, of course

(Newser) -
Prepare to have ABBA tunes rolling around your head: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again , set five years after the first movie , finds Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) hard at work on the hotel her mother, Donna (Meryl Streep, Lilly James) keeps on a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. But her...
More »

Bo Burnham's debut is one of the funniest teen movies ever: Peter Travers

(Newser) -
Rawson Marshall Thurber's Skyscraper arrives at the box office this weekend with the most wham: It's "the biggest-budgeted 'not based on anything' release of the year," per Forbes , and stars heartthrob Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson as a former FBI operative turned security expert under...
More »

Film's 'goofball charm' wins over critics

(Newser) -
A size-adjustable superhero finds trouble and a partner in Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp, so far much better received than its predecessor. The film from director Peyton Reed features Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly (Kate, from Lost) in the titles roles— a first for a female Marvel character. As...
More »

It's derivative, but not the worst film you could watch: critics

(Newser) -
When you last saw them , the dinosaurs of Jurassic World had overrun the park—no surprise there. Now they need saving, specifically from a volcano rumbling to life beneath their feet. Enter Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom , a JA Bayona film that...
More »

'A sense of madcap fun is conspicuously absent,' complains one

(Newser) -
What happens when a group of childhood friends continues playing Tag, often at inopportune times, well into adulthood? Here's what critics (who are split 60-40 on Rotten Tomatoes ) are saying about Jeff Tomsic's Tag , starring a host of funny people from Isla Fisher to Hannibal Buress:

(Newser) -
Will you miss Harrison Ford? Undoubtedly. Will you still enjoy seeing how Han Solo got his start, and survived his first encounter with Chewbacca? Maybe. So say critics who've given Ron Howard's Solo: A Star Wars Story a 69% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes . It's a decent...
More »

Critics are mostly happy with the snarky superhero sequel

(Newser) -
Now pondering fatherhood, Deadpool is back to kick butt and crack jokes in Marvel's Deadpool 2 , featuring Ryan Reynolds and more than a few F-bombs. Its predecessor ruled the box office in 2016, but does this sequel from David Leitch—which cost a stuntwoman her life —have the...
More »

Critics applaud her 'gutsy' performance as tired mom

(Newser) -
An exhausted mother of three is convinced to hire a night nurse in Tully , from writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman, the same pair responsible for 2007's Juno. Tully, starring Charlize Theron, has an impressive 90% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes . What they're saying:

Josh Brolin gets props as Thanos

(Newser) -
Your favorite Marvel superheroes from Black Panther to Spiderman rally against a villain hoping to destroy half the universe in Avengers: Infinity War , the lengthy (2 hours, 40 minutes) third installment in the series slated to wrap up next year. Setting the stage for an epic conclusion, the film directed...
More »

(Newser) -
It's another disappointing showing for Amy Schumer, say critics, who've given new flick I Feel Pretty a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . (Audiences were even less kind, at 26%.) Alongside other funny females like Busy Philipps, Aidy Bryant, and Sasheer Zamata, Schumer stars as a self-conscious woman...
More »

Brady Jandreau, director Chloé Zhao getting high praise

(Newser) -
The Rider is an American cowboy tale from a relatively new Chinese director. It also features a cast of people who've never acted before. And it's apparently awesome. Brady Jandreau, a real-life cowboy who suffered a brain injury in a 2016 fall, stars alongside his friends and...
More »

Critics are wowed by the John Krasinski horror film

(Newser) -
Make a noise, get hunted. That's the premise of A Quiet Place, set in a world ravaged by sound-sensitive aliens. Directed by John Krasinski (yes, Jim from The Office), the film follows a family led by Krasinski and his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, and has an impressive 96% rating...
More »

Dozens of 1980s references are 'too sweet to spoil,' critic says

(Newser) -
Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One , adapted from Ernest Cline's 2011 novel of the same name, is set in 2045, but it's clearly homesick for the 1980s. Packed with nostalgic references, it follows gamer Wade Watts on a quest to take control of a virtual-reality world in which...
More »

'Isle of Dogs' is a stop-motion tale

(Newser) -
Nabbing an all-star cast for his ninth feature film about the exile of dogs to a trash island in a future Japan appears to have paid off for Wes Anderson. The stop-motion Isle of Dogs —with Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, and...
More »

'There's nothing here we haven't seen before,' says Adam Graham

(Newser) -
Fifteen years after Angelina Jolie last took on the role, Lara Croft gets a fresh face. In Roar Uthaug's Tomb Raider , Swedish Oscar winner Alicia Vikander plays the daughter of a missing adventurer who falls into a world of trouble on a remote Pacific island while trying to trace...
More »

Joe Morgenstern calls big-budget film 'a great disappointment'

(Newser) -
More than 50 years after it was written, Madeleine L'Engle's beloved children's tale about a girl who hopes to rescue her father from a distant planet, to which he's traveled through a wrinkle in time, is hitting the big screen. What did Ava DuVernay manage with...
More »